Amazing revelation in his new book. He claims that in 1980, then-Leafs owner Harold Ballard proposed having the Leafs and Oilers franchises swap cities, with Ballard — who was apparently having financial difficulties at the time — receiving from Pocklington a $50M cheque for the privilege of accessing the southern Ontario hockey market. While Pocklington was prepared to go through with it, Ballard backed out before consummating the deal.
But would the NHL have allowed such a move?
Excerpts of the book here:
http://www.canada.com/sports/Read%20boo ... story.html
Peter Pocklington's book
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Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
Pocklington is trying to sell a book, so colour me cynical when it comes to outlandish claims like this. It`s awfully convenient that Ballard is dead, and cannot refute the story...
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WestCoastJoe
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Gretzky, Messier and Coffey, etc. would have stayed in Edmonton, with Ballard as owner.
All the Laffs players would have stayed in Toronto with Pocklington as owner.
More potential money for Pocklington in the bigger market.
Ballard trying to buy a good team. Ha ha. He could never build one on his own.
Edmonton and Toronto. 2 much reviled sports cities in the rest of the country.
Ballard and Pocklington. 2 much reviled owners. Both experienced major legal troubles.
.....................
A pox on both houses, as Shakespeare would say.
All the Laffs players would have stayed in Toronto with Pocklington as owner.
More potential money for Pocklington in the bigger market.
Ballard trying to buy a good team. Ha ha. He could never build one on his own.
Edmonton and Toronto. 2 much reviled sports cities in the rest of the country.
Ballard and Pocklington. 2 much reviled owners. Both experienced major legal troubles.
.....................
A pox on both houses, as Shakespeare would say.
Yeah, that's exactly why I was careful to use the word "claim". At the same time, it seems Gretzky has provided some partial corroboration of the story, but who knows, he might been fed some party line from management at the time. The other thing is, Harold Ballard was nutty enough to try to pull off something like this.Lionut wrote:Pocklington is trying to sell a book, so colour me cynical when it comes to outlandish claims like this. It`s awfully convenient that Ballard is dead, and cannot refute the story...
But whether true or not, the most important aspect of all this, IMO, which I haven't yet seen addressed in any media accounts, is whether the league would have permitted such a bold transaction. It would have set a pretty bad precedent to allow teams to exchange cities wholesale, so I'm inclined to think not, which makes the claim moot. It'd be like if Balsillie was keeping his NHL dealings under cover all this time, only for it to be finally revealed in, say 2035, that he nearly put an NHL team in Hamilton about 25 years ago, but changed his mind at the last minute.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
WADR, that's not the way I understood the claim. The way I read it, there was to be a straight-up exchange of rosters (plus the PP-to-HB $50M), as well as exchange of ownership.WestCoastJoe wrote:Gretzky, Messier and Coffey, etc. would have stayed in Edmonton, with Ballard as owner.
All the Laffs players would have stayed in Toronto with Pocklington as owner.
Ballard never cared about hockey operations. If he did he wouldn't have turned the Leafs into such a joke, and AFAIC it's no coincidence they evolved into a contender — back-to-back semifinal berths after having never once gone so deep in ages — very soon after he died. He knew MLG would sell out no matter who was wearing the blue and white, so he never had any motivation. With the current OTPF ownership and team performance situation, it's hard to argue the status quo is much different and I'm wondering how long Burke will put up with it.More potential money for Pocklington in the bigger market.
Ballard trying to buy a good team. Ha ha. He could never build one on his own.
In PP's case, you can use the present tense!Edmonton and Toronto. 2 much reviled sports cities in the rest of the country.
Ballard and Pocklington. 2 much reviled owners. Both experienced major legal troubles.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.